How to be healthy in a world fixated on how we all look
Khloe Kardashian says she edits photos of herself online because she has endured years of cruel comparisons with how her sisters look (Metro, Fri).
The saddest part about the whole debacle – which only came to light after an unfiltered shot was accidentally shared online – is that she looks perfectly fine and pretty in her unphotoshopped image. It’s so sad that people are made to feel like their natural self isn’t good enough
Lucy, Doncaster
How ironic that Khloe mentions the pressure placed on her because of her sisters to look beautiful etc. Therein lies the problem experienced by tens of thousands of young women who also feel pressured into conforming with the looks of other social media so-called stars. Have a word with your sisters, Khloe, and ensure they understand the mental health issues they cause.
Paul, West Midlands
A parliamentary committee says body mass index (BMI) should be scrapped as a way of determining whether someone is healthy because it can trigger eating disorders (Metro, Fri).
It can be very useful as a guide but we have moved to a new level of understanding these issues.
Essentially, it’s a quick, one-size-fits-all way to determine if a person is overweight but it doesn’t use enough parameters in the calculation to be taken too seriously.
Houghton, via email
People like online physical education guru Joe ‘The Body Coach’ Wicks advise others not to use the ‘sad step’ (scales) and instead use a tape measure to see any improvement.
Trying this approach helped me not to ridicule and put pressure on myself for not losing weight before my eating disorder was diagnosed.
There has been lots of research into BMI being inaccurate or leading to the fat-shaming of people who are renowned athletes.
Doctors focus too much on BMI when helping with eating disorders.
Many times I’ve been told I was fat and I needed to lose weight but my eating disorder was not addressed. There’s too
much social pressure for your body to be certain way.
I understand being overweight has an impact on people’s health but if you can’t lose weight, have tried and have an eating disorder, there should be no more pressure to lose weight.
Focus should be diverted to how to eat healthily and be active, and address emotions attached to food and how we measure weight.
Heloise, via email
I can understand mental health issues connected to BMI but to scrap health labels from food isn’t a good idea. People look to them as a guide.
Moira, via email